xt7fqz22cb3c https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7fqz22cb3c/data/mets.xml Kentucky. State Geologist. 1885  books b97-20-37313049 English J.D. Woods, Public Printer and Binder, : [Frankfort, Ky.] : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Geology Kentucky Marion County.Knott, W. T. Report on the geology of Marion County  / by W.T. Knott. text Report on the geology of Marion County  / by W.T. Knott. 1885 2002 true xt7fqz22cb3c section xt7fqz22cb3c 









GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KENTUCKY.
        JOHN R. PROCTER, DIRECTOR.



              REPORT

                ON THE


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



By W. T. KNOTT.



JOHN D. WOODS, PUBLIC PRINTER AND BINDER.

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             INTRODUCTORY LETTER.



                         LEBANON, Ky., January i, I885.
HON. JOHN R. PROCTER, Director of Kentucky Geological Survey:
DEAR SIR: I herewith transmit to you my report on the Geol-
ogy of Marion County. Other features are added, such as a
list of fossils, some notes on the archaeology, and notes on the
curious fossil Beatricea which is found in large numbers in the
county. Yours truly,                   WV. T. KNOTT.

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MARION COUNTY.



                 HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, ETC.
  In the year i834 Washington County was divided by a line
running due east, from a point midway between Springfield and
Lebanon, with its eastern terminus falling on the then Mercer,
now Boyle, county line.
  From this midway point the line west diverged north of a
due east and west line, and falling on Hardin's Creek, followed
that creek to its mouth, or to its confluence with the Beech Fork
of Salt River, where is the Nelson County line. Since the origi-
nal line there has been a slight modification of said line be-
tween the midway point and Hardin's Creek, but so slight as to
be of no consequence as regards the history of the county, geo-
logically or otherwise. The southern portion of Washington,
so divided, is Marion County, which occupies a central position in
the State, with Washington County on the north, Boyle on the
east, Casey on the southeast, Taylor on the south, Larue south-
west and Nelson County on the west.
The county has a superficial area of 400 square miles, or
nearly so, with varied topography. In general terms its sur-
face may be called broken or hilly, and especially so in the east-
ern and southern portions, yet in some instances, even in the
more hilly parts, there occur quite large districts of practically
level land, only with undulations sufficient to secure good
drainage.
  From the lowest valleys of the deepest drainage to the high-
est elevations are as much as 400 feet.
  The most prominent and marked topographical features are
occasioned by the existence of a series of "knobs" found

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



largely occupying the eastern, southern and western parts of
the county.
  The problems involved in the development of these topo-
graphical features are of special interest to the student of
science.  That all of these elevations, once constituted, or
rather formed, a part of a regular continuous plateau seems not
to admit of a doubt, and that the great plateau, of which they
are now only Ibench marks," once extended much further
north than at present outlined by the " knobs" is alike evident.
  Proofs are abundant showing that such a plateau did once
exist, the may remains of elevations and "stumps " of knobs
that are now to be seen, the many districts covered with the
waste of superimposed geological formations under conditions
not to be accounted for reasonably by any method of transport-
ation, force the conclusion of this once existing, continuous,
elevated table land. Its extreme original northern and north-
western limits may not as yet have been definitely determined,
but in this county we find the northern boundary as it now ex-
ists forming the ragged edges of the escarpment of Muldrow's
Hill.
  The isolated knobs and knobby ridges of the county are mere
fragments, detached from the Muldrow's Hill range, existing as
monuments of the gradual but sure decadence of the once
great "Cumberland Plateau."
  Erosion has done the most of its mighty work here, subse-
quent to the building of the " Cincinnati Arch " and the eleva-
tion of the "1 Kentucky Anticlinal." Those great events left to
erosion the material, no doubt in good condition and good
shape for removal. By lines of fracture, crushing of strata of
rocks, faults and fissures, the work of erosive carving was made
much less difficult and indicated the sculpture resulting in the
varied topography of this and other counties which front the
range of Muldrow's Hill.
  The " knob region" of the county is about one-fourth of its
area, but in this region, in the valleys between the knobs and in
the coves of the hills, are some of the best farms and most fer-
tile soils, and on the north and northeast slopes and terraces of



6

 

GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



the knobs the soil is productive, covered originally with fine
timber.
  The economic value of the knobs will be noticed more fully
further on.
  The public spirit and enterprise of the citizens have secured
a system of railways and turnpike roads, with facilities not sur-
passed by any sister county in proportion to wealth.  The
Knoxville Branch of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, now
connecting Louisville and the North and Northwestern States
with Knoxville, Tenn., and the South and Southeastern States
of the Union, runs the entire length of the county from west to
east, a distance of thirty miles, dividing it into somewhat equal
parts.
  The Cumberland and Ohio Branch of the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad connects with the Knoxville Branch at Leb-
anon, running south to Greensburg, Green County, a distance of
thirty miles.
  Turnpike roads have been constructed from Lebanon radiat-
ing in every direction to the borders of the county, with others
intersecting these at different points, making a network of
McAdamized and gravel roads all over the county, which ag-
gregate over one hundred miles.
  The above railroad and turnpike facilities and advantages
and conveniences are of great value to the county as regards
its present and future prosperity, and such as can not well be
overestimated.
  There are several institutions of learning deserving notice.
The oldest and best known at home and abroad are Loretto
Academy, Calvary Academy, and St. Mary's College. Loretto
and Calvary academies are both female institutions, the former
located northwest from Lebanon ten miles, and near the Knox-
ville Branch Railroad, the latter south from Lebanon and four
and a half miles distant, and near the Cumberland and Ohio
Railroad. St. Mary's College, for males, is west. and five miles
from Lebanon, on the Knoxville Branch Railroad.
  These institutions, ranking with any in the state, are under
the auspices of the Catholic denomination, and were organized



7

 


8GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



long anterior to the organization of Marion county. There are
good schools in Lebanon, both graded and common schools,
where all have facilities for good English education.
  The common school system throughout the county is a full
average with other counties of the state.

                       DRAINAGE.

  The general water flow has two systems of drainage from a
dividing ridge running east and west. One system drains the
waters of the northern part into the Beech Fork of Salt River,
and includes Hardin's Creek, Cartwright's Creek, Pleasant Run
and the Little Beech and their tributaries. All this drainage is
northwest from the axis of the divide. None of these streams
now are of any consequence as to water power, although in the
early settlement of the county both Hardin's Creek and Cart-
wright's Creek supplied ample water to run grist mills for six or
eight months in the year.
  The southern and much the larger system of drainage is into
the Rolling Fork of Salt River. (All the waters of this county
flow into Salt River, thence by way of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.) The Rolling Fork runs the en-
tire length of the county from Bradfordsville to its western bor-
der, and is formed by the junction of the " North " and " South "
Forks at Bradfordsville. This stream has quite a number of
good size creeks as tributaries. In the east, and flowing into
the North and South forks before their junction, are Old Lick
Creek, " Little South " and others of smaller dimensions. The
system of drainage into the Rolling Fork from the sou /h, bring-
ing the water fall from Muldrow's Hill, includes (in regular order
beginning east) Cabin Branch, Medlock's Creek, Arbuckle's
Creek, Cloyd's Creek, Musson's' Creek, Knob Creek, Clear
Creek and Salt Lick Creek with their tributaries.
  The waters flowing into the Rolling Fork from the nor/k are
in the same order, beginning east, Pope's Creek, Caney's Creek,
Mattingly's Branch, Caney Run, Stewart's Creek, Cherry Run,
Prather's Creek, Pound Run, Sulphur Lick and Pottinger's



8

 



GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



Creek. The two last do not empty into Rolling Fork in the
limits of the county, yet they drain a large district in the west-
ern portion of the county.
  The Rolling Fork at one time, before the day of railroads
and turnpikes, was in a limited sense a navigable stream for
flatboats. Many such boats loaded with the products of the
county bordering the river, such as whisky, bacon, etc., were
carried by its flood tides into Salt River, thence into the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers to Vicksburg, Natchez, New Orleans
and other markets along the Lower Mississippi. Before the day
of steam power, many of the streams in the county afforded
water power for grist and saw mills, for from four to eight
months in the year. Now this water power is of no value what-
ever, the streams afford much less flow and are soon dried up.
  Springs and streams that once flowed the entire year last
now but a few months, and this during the wet seasons. This
great change, among other causes, may be attributed to the
destruction and sweeping off our once dense forests from our
lands, and the cultivation of our lands thus denuded.
  In addition to the foregoing features of topography and
drainage, below-for reference is given a table of elevations above
sea level of points on the Knoxville and Cumberland and Ohio
branches of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Commenc-
ing at a point near the western border,



The elevation at
New Hope (track at depot).
Chicago.
Loretto .
St. Mary's  ............
Lebanon.
Penick's.
Riley's.
Gravel Switch  ..........
North Fork .. ..........
Elevations on Chesapeake and Ohio
Lebanon (track at depot) .... ..
Calvary (track at depot) .
Bed of Rolling Fork (at bridge) . .
Phillipeburg (track at depot) . . .
Trestle, second at Muldrow's Hill
Summit of Muldrow's Hill . . .



                          Feet.
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 4 8 8
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 6 7 3
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 7 1 1
........ . .. . .. ... 733
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 7 5 4
...... .. . .. .. . .. .. 930
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 9 1 4
..... .. .. . .. . .. .. 8 9 6
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 9 3 4
Branch at
......... . . .  .. . .. 754
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 6 2 5
...... . .. .. . .. .. . 695
..... .. .. . .. .. . .. 7 1 2
.. .. .. . .. .. . .. ..       . 8 7 9
..... .. . .. .. .. . ..1 1 6 0



9

 



GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



                         GEOLOGY.

  The rocks of this county are all of the Paleozoic Era, and be-
long to the three ages of that era-the Silurian, Devonian and
Carboniferous-and form a column nearly one thousand feet in
height, beginning with the oldest and ending with the more
recent rocks, as seen in the county. As the entire column can
not be observed in any one place or section of rocks, it is con-
structed of sections of exposure in different parts. These, if all
occurring at one exposure, would show as follows, commencing
at the top of column:



Period.



Epoch.



                              Upper Subcarboniferous
Carboniferous.     Subearboniferous.
                              Lower Subcarboniferous



Hamilton.
Corniferous.



Niagara.



Black Slate.
Corn iferous Limestonc.



Crab Orchard Shale.
Medina.



                              Upper Hudson.
Lower Silurian.Trenton.       Middle Hudson.
                              Lower Hudson.



Feet.


   30
   325



   60
   15



25
20


325
150
30



Feet.








. . 375



. 75



..45




.500



  995



  The oldest and bottom rocks of the county as discovered,
and as shown in table above, are a part of the upper division
of the Trenton Period-the upper or latest period of the Lower
Silurian Age-and belong to an epoch known in New York ge-



Age.



Devonian.



Upper Silurian.



Total .



IO

 



GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



ology as the Hudson River Epoch (Hall), in Ohio and Illinois
as the Cincinnati Group (Meek and Worthen), and in the Geol-
ogy of Tennessee as the Nashville Group (Safford).
  This report will recognize the system and nomenclature of
the New York reports, but will for better explanation and more
accurate detail make the following divisions in the Hudson
River Epoch. The Upper Hudson River Beds, the Middle Hud-
son River Beds and the Lower Hudson River Beds.
  The Lower beds are found as surface rock only to a
small extent, and in the northeastern part of the county, on
Logan's Creek, and extending into Boyle and Washington
counties. These rocks dip to the northwest and are seen no
where else in the county. This exposure is nearly on a line
east and west with the same rocks exposed in Boyle and Lin-
coln counties, and this line of exposure is its extreme southern
limit in the State of Kentucky.
  No Lower Hudson River rocks are seen in Kentucky south
of this line. In fact the Lower Hudson River rocks are not
truly surface rockskas the section is seen only in the beds of the
drainage and the slopes of the hills bordering on the creeks and
branches, their greatest thickness only thirty feet. The strata
in many places show large and well-defined wave marks, quite
conspicuous and perfect, and to any one who would study the
circumstances and environments of their formation are most in-
teresting.
  On account of the meager exposure of their beds, not being
properly surface rocks, the conditions for soil making are en-
tirely wanting, consequently distinct soils and any marked dis-
tribution of forest growth do not occur.
  The sandstone shales are quite thin. The limestone rocks
are heavier bedded, and with the limestone shales, bear fossils,
and have the usual genera and species found in similar beds
elsewhere. Leptkna sericea, Orthis emacerata, Bellerophon bilo-
ba/us, several species of Ch/atees, Benchea, Modiolopsis, etc.,
are common.



I I

 


12              GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.

     SILICIOUS MUDSTONE OF OLD REPORTS.

  Middle Hudson River Beds.-These rocks -occur also
only in the northeastern part of the county around Haysville.
The farms for the most part on the highlands on Lander's Creek
and Lick Run, north of Haysville, are all on these rocks. Near
the Washington County line the depth of these beds is greater
than at any other point and show a thickness of about one
hundred and fifty feet, and slightly dipping a little north of
west. This group, or rather division, of the Hudson River
Epoch is made up largely of limestones and silicious mud-
stones, with shaly sandstones and clayey marls often intercal-
lated.
  The limestones in some beds are of great toughness and
good thickness, adapted well for all kinds of building and ma-
sonry, but these beds are very rare. The most of the limestones
are shaley and easily wasted.
  The Silicious Mudstones when first opened have a bluish cast,
and are rather soft, but exposure hardens them very much and
turns them to a dingy yellow, with signs of rapid disintegration.
They are of little value as building stones, as the rains and
freezes and thaws, with other atmospheric influences, cause them
to disintegrate rapidly into soils.
  The rocks all contain some lime. Even the sandstone shales
and soils made from them, as a general thing, are good, strong
productive soils, especially for coni and the grasses, and small
grain also does well in good seasons.
  The soil is comparatively porous and light, and adapted to re-
tain moisture, from which conditions of the soil small grain and
clover are liable to be much injured by the late winter and early
spring freezes. The soil is generally a deep soil, easily washed
from the slopes, but not so apt to wash out deep gullies as some
soils from other formations.
  These middle beds produce as characteristic forest growth
beech and large yellow p-plars, with black walnut, white oak,
and some few sugar maples. Red oak, swamp oak, dogwood,
black gum, etc., are common. These rocks occupy so small

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



an area in this county that many of their characteristics found
elsewhere may be entirely wanting here.
  The silicious mudstones and sandstone shales bear no fossils
except as occasional imperfect impressions or moulds in the
layers of the rocks occur.
  While the limestones are quite prolific of shells and coral.,
but few good specimens are found, fragments of Ambon-
-l ia, Strolphomentz alternata, S. planoconvexus, and an Or/ho-
ceras were found.

  Upper Hudson River Beds.-By reference to the map
it will be seen that these beds occupy a large area in the
county, and embrace nearly one half of the cultivated lands
within its limits.
  This division, in its depth of rocks, measures about three
hundred and twenty-five feet, composed of shaley sandstones
and limestone, and beds of limestone, and beds of silicious mud-
stone holding a small proportion of lime. The lowest one hun-
dred feet is made up of rather thin beds of limestone and shale
alternating, the limestone layers from five to twelve inches thick.
Upon this comes about one hundred and twenty-five feet of
alternating limestones, sandstones and shales. The beds of
limestones in some instances are in layers of twenty or more
inches thick, of bluish tint, very tough and durable. Ascending
again for about eighty feet, limestones of varied thickness occur,
separated by thin layers of shale, and thick beds of clayey
sandstone, and shelly limestone layers of from three to six
inches in thickness.
  The uppermost section of the upper beds for twenty feet is
made up of the limestone, coral and beatricea beds, separated by
thin shale or shelly limestone layers.
  The limestones of this division are most wonderfully prolific
in fossils. Many of the thin layers, with intercallated shales of
clayey marl are simply conglomerates of shells and corals.
  When these beds are exposed the conglomerated layers soon
fall to pieces and leave thousands of perfect specimens of an-
cient life in their ruins. A noted feature of these rocks is the



I3

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



coral and beatricea beds found at the top of the Hudson River
Group. This bed is found in many places in the county where
the Upper Hudson River Beds occur. Wagon loads of finely
preserved specimens of columnaria corals, from the size of a
marble to three feet in diameter appear, showing well the radi-
ations and structure of the calices. The same may be said of
the columnopora corals, except that the corallums are not so
large as in columnaria. The streptelasma corals abound in un-
usual quantities also.
  Bea/ricea nodulosa and B. undulata (Billings) are found in
force in this bed, associated with the above and the tetra-
diurn corals, which also abound here. There has been great
diversity of opinion among paleontologists as to where bea-
tricea properly belongs. Some have placed it with the sponges,
some with corals, and others have described it as a cephalopod,
and others again, differing widely, have placed it in the plant
kingdom, which last opinion appears to satisfy the mind more
fully of its probable character than any other, because the
features of its structure are, more clearly accounted for to
place it as a plant than as an animal. The entire county
appears to be, with the exception of a small area in the north-
eastern part, on a coral reef, formed in the clear and compara-
tively shallow waters of the last ocean of the Lower Silurian Age.
This reef is seen in the northern part of the county almost
everywherej in the western part it is exposed on the slopes of
the hills, and in the ezstern part it is seen in the deep drainage
of the knobs. There are no extended tracts of level land on
these rocks, though quite good size districts are only gently
sloping, and many large farms are called level, because not cut
up by deep drainage, but really a strictly level farm of any size
can not be found.
  The soils made from the rocks of this group or division of the
Upper Hudson River Beds are locally known as "limestone
lands," the soil and subsoil of a rather stiff yellow clay overlying
the blue limestone. Its fertility is largely due to the fossiliferous
shales and marls interstratafied with the limestone and silicious
claystone beds upon which it rests. This soil lies over near



14

 

GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



one fourth of the county, as can be seen from the map, and the
thrifty and industrious farmer, with a propitious season, never
has reason to complain of his crops. Subsoil plowing en-
hances its fertility greatly, and renders is cultivation much
more thorough and less difficult, and prepares it for either wet
seasons or dry seasons much better than ordinary shallow or
surface plowing. All the grains and grasses do well, when
properly cultivated. If not attended to properly, the land is
liable to wash on the steeper hillsides into deep gullies. These
washes, when down to the rock, widen from year to year, until
in time all the soil is gone, and recovery is impossible. But the
wide awake farmer will never allow this, for the moment a wash
is discovered he at once puts a stop to it by filling up with brush
or rocks. Thus the incipient wash, and any damage doge, is
soon remedied, and the slope put down in grass.
  The timber growth peculiar to these rocks is white oak as the
characteristic and most abundant growth, with hickory, black
oak, and some sugar maple and ash on the more- level lands,
and these, with dogwood, hornbeam, elm, black haw, etc., on
the hilly portions and along the valleys of the streams.

                   UPPER SILURIAN.

  Niagara Period.-There is a series of rocks exposed in
the eastern and western parts of the county, as well as at other
points along the bluffs of the Rolling Fork and its tributaries,
which is considered the equivalent of a part of the Niagara
Period, as described in New York reports. It is true, however,
that here the series is of much less thickness and wanting in
some of the minor features of the period, and contains very few
fossils, fucoids being the most abundant. The lower rocks are
usually a dirty buff-colored, heavy-bedded argillaceous sand-
stone, hard and rough and uneven on the surface, apparently
marked by remains of fucoids, some of large size, and when
broken are of bluish tint, and disclose numerous small cavities,
lined or filled with crystals of calcite. This bed lies in the west-
ern part of the county, as seen along the cuts of the railroad



' 5

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



near Coon Hollow and New Hope, immediately upon the tetra-
dium beds of the Upper Hudson division, and consequently
with those coral beds form the line of junction between the
Lower and Upper Silurian ages.
  The coral beds upon which these rocks are placed at Coon
Hollow are about twelve feet thick, and are a perfect reef of
columnaria, columnopora, tekradium and streptelasma corals, and
several species of shells and both species of bealricea are also
abundant in these beds.
  Below is a section carefully taken near the Nelson County
line, showing from the black slate at the top to the coral beds
at the bottom:
    Black slate.                                        Ft. In.
    Yellowish limestone without fossils ................. . 1 0
    Gray suberystalline limestone...                           2 4
    Shale with pyrites.... .. .. . ............................3 0
    Shales containing chert in plates ...... .  .  .  .  . ......... 1 6
    Shales containing chert in nodules .. . .. . .. . .. . .. .. .. 1 2
    Limestone containing chert in layers..... . .. .. . ... .   . 1 2
    Limestone containing chert in nodules..... ..   . .. . .. . 1  3
    Silicious limestone with pyrites .-... .   . ... .......   o .
    Argillaceous sandstone with fucoids ......... .  .  .. .   ... . 14 0
    Coral beds of Upper Hudson.

  A similar section has been discovered at no other point in the
county. Near Holy Cross Church, in the western part of the
county, are found twenty feet of greenish ash-colored shales,
with pyrites and crystals of selenite and plant-like markings ill
the hard shales.  These rocks have been described in the Gar-
rard and Lincoln County reports and called " Crab Orchard
Shale," because first found near Crab Orchard, Ky.
  Until more study and closer examination of these series shall
have been made their true place may not be certainly known,
but probably enough is now known to place the heavy bedded
argillaceous sandstone with its shales in the Medina Epoch, and
the rocks and shales, superimposed and reaching to the De-
vonian age, known as Crab Orchard Shales in this report, in the
Clinton Epoch of the New York reports.
  Very few characteristic fossils of either epoch have as yet
been found. A few favosites, stromatopora,zaphrentes and Atrypa

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



reticularis have been found in an imperfect condition. The
series so far appears to be almost entirely destitute of fossils
capable of being identified.
  The soil over these rocks,where the waste of the corniferous
limestone and shales have fallen upon them, is a good lively soil,
and produces well. But the soil from the disintegration of the
Crab Orchard shale is quite poor and responds very slowly to
the toils of the farmer, while the forest growth is very much
dwarfed, although similar in species to that of the tall, well
shaped, large size timber trees of the epoch before it. The
forests originally were well timbered.

                    DEVONIAN AGE.

  Corniferous Period.-The Devonian, as well as the
Upper Silurian, has but two of its representatives here, and
these in rather small force.
  This period has but the one epoch, and that the Corniferous
Limestone, which lies immediately upon the Crab Orchard shales,
and represented by only a few feet of limestone and shales, and
is readily recognized. The change of formation and rocky ma-
terial from the underlying beds is very sudden and well marked.
From a thick, heavy-bedded argillaceous sandstone of bluish
tint and somewhat banded with deeper blue, weathering rapidly
when exposed, comes on about a foot, and sometimes two feet,
of shales of pure limestone, almost a conglomerate of fossils.
And upon this thin bed of shaly limestone arises a solid, com-
pact gray limestone from four to six feet thick, sometimes with
cherty nodules and bands of chert or hornstone, and often with-
out either. Quarries in the beds without hornstone are worked
in and around Lebanon, and this is one of the best building
stones in the country.
  This limestone is very variable in its structure within short
distances. Only a few miles distant from a bed of pure lime-
stone, the same is found full of cherty nodules and layers of
chert or hornstone, so hard that it is impossible to use it as
building material to any advantage. Then again the same bed



I 7

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.



occurs in a shaly condition in a locality near by, and again it ap-
pears as a mottled brecciated rock. This phase of the bed is
good stone for masonry.       A greater portion of the piers of the
bridge across the Rolling Fork, near Calvary, is of this kind of
stone. This Corniferous limestone, in all of its phases, is rich
in fossils. The cherty beds, when wasted, leave their fossils all
thoroughly silicified, and specimens as nearly perfect as can be.
From these beds are produced the PhillAisastrea in corallums
from half a foot to eighteen inches in diameter, with epitheca
and calices almost perfect, five or six species of favosites, several
species of the horn-shaped corals, with numerous shells, etc.
The same fossils are found at the falls of the Ohio at Louis-
ville.
  The soil from    this bed and shales is one of the best in the
county, and said by Professor Owen, in his Kentucky reports,
to be the very best farming lands in the county. I give below
the analysis of this soil by Dr. Peter, of " Owen's Geological
Survey of Kentucky," Vol. III, pages 313, 314 and 315.
  These analyses were made from specimens of soil taken from
the farm then owned by Daniel Everhart, now owned by Mr.
Joseph Phillips. The first column of figures shows analysis of
virgin soil, the other two of soils that had been cultivated six/-
five years:
                      TABLE OF ANALYSIS.

                                             No. 673. No; 674. No. 67.5.
                                             Virgin Cultiv'td Cultiv td
                                               soil. 65 years. 65 year.

Organic and volatile matter ............ .     . .  4.786   4.748  3.679
Alumina... . .. .. . .. .. . .. . .. .. . ..  6.495  3.940  4.645
Oxide of iron......... ..    .. .. . ... ..    3.565 4.970  5.360
Carbonate of lime.... .. .. . .. . .. .. . ..   .222   .222   .39 7
Magnesia.. .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. . ..   .339   .302   .372
Brown oxide of manganese..271                           .312   .172
Phosphoric acid.... .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. .   .262   .280   .279
Sulpliuric acid.................. . . .           .042   .062   .042
Potash.... . .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. . ..   .159   .181   .212
Soda. . .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. . ..   .011   .033   .019
Sand and silicates... . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . 85.040 84.720 84.7'20



Dr. Peter, after the above analysis, remarks: - In these soils

 


GEOLOGY OF MARION COUNTY.            9



also the apparent anomaly is to be noticed of somewhat greater
strength in the soil of the old field than in that analyzed as the
virgin soil. From appearances, however, it is probable that
some of the subsoil, which contains more potash than even the
virgin surface soil, has been turned up by the plow and mixed
with the upper soil in the cultivation of the field." These tables
of analyses show the great importance of deep subsoil plowing
in these soils at least, and there can be no doubt the same fact
applies to all soils to a greater or less degree. The clays from
the waste of this rock in different parts of the county are strong
and lasting fertilizers when thrown on the washed and impover-
ished lands. Clays thus used are shown to have greatly en-
hanced the fertility of worn out soils, and are noticed in its
having been taken from four to six feet from cellars. Clays
thus used sixty years ago show to this day great strength and
fertility.
                  HAMILTON PERIOD.

  Black Slate.-But one epoch of this period is found here'
the Genessee Shale, of New York reports, the Huron Shale,
of Ohio reports,-known in these reports as Black Slate. This
deposit is found in the eastern, western and southern parts of
the county, sometimes as surface rock, but more commonly as
outcrops from the bases of the knobs lying upon the Corniferous
rocks. It has, where not eroded, a maximum thickness of about
sixty feet, and is never found in full force except under the
knobs.
  Its bedding upon the lower group is quite variable. In some
exposures the bottom is a tough, compact, black layer, with
some lime; in other places the thin shaly structure reaches the
bottom and extends to the top, and in others again the bottom
is shaly with thin layers of dark calcareous sandstone for several
feet, then a bed of very black slate, holding fossils. The fossils
so far. discovered are Lingida me/ia (Hall), Lingula spalula
(Hall), Discina minuta (Hall), Discina Iruncata (Hall), and
scales and spines of fishes and fucoids also occur. Iron pyrites
in nodules and thin layers abound, so abundant in some places



I9

 


GEOLOGY OF MIARION COUNTY.



that a pretty pure copperas, spontaneously formed, is gathered
and used in coloring to good effect.
  The oil supposed to exist in the black slate, (from its readiness
to co